Glass Window Design (1927)

The name and activity of Sándor Nagy are inseparably linked with the Gödöllő Artists' Camp. The efforts and artistic ideas of Nagy and Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch shaped the image of the Gödöllő Art Nouveau Colony, the only organised association of Hungarian Art Nouveau. They believed that "every manifestation of life must be given artistic content" and trusted in the life-renewing, purifying role of art. In 1890, Sándor Nagy was awarded a two-year scholarship to Rome, and in 1892 he went to Paris and enrolled at the Julian Academy. In his memoirs he writes that in his search for the task of art he immersed himself in reading Tolstoy and the Evangelist Gospels. It was also here, following Mednyánszky, that he encountered the activities of the Rose Croix group and the English Pre-Raphaelite movement. During the summer he visited his home country, touring Transylvania and learning about Transylvanian art.

In 1900, after seven years in Paris, Sándor Nagy finally returned home. In 1902 he married Laura, the sister of Aladár Kriesch. After their marriage, the initials of his wife's name appeared on Sándor Nagy's signature in the light of the principle of their harmonious life and work. They settled in Veszprém, and it was from this time that Sándor Nagy's Art Nouveau artistic genius began to unfold. Like William Morris, Nagy was involved in almost every genre: graphic art, fresco painting, glass window design, plaque design, furniture, leather goods and tapestry design. The Gödöllő plant was the lifeblood of his wide-ranging activities. Its organisation began in 1902, when Aladár Kriesch settled in the village. The Nagy family moved from Veszprém to Gödöllő in 1907. Their aim was not to develop a painterly method, but to create a community life based on specific moral and aesthetic principles. The inspiration of folk art played a central role in the work of Sándor Nagy and the people of Gödöllő.

In his works from the 1900s, the predominant theme is the Hungarian folk. He did not simply incorporate the ornamentation of folk art, but rather presented life scenes in a decorative style. In his works, the folk theme was expanded and linked to social issues. His social criticism was expressed in complex, symbolic forms. His move to Gödöllő opened a new chapter in his art. His works constitute the most significant chapter of the so-called 'Hungarian Art Nouveau'. He saw the way to the creation of new Hungarian art in the combination of the Hungarian and universal character of symbolic art on the one hand, and in the decorative-symbolic reworking of the existing content and formal world of Hungarian historicism on the other. Sándor Nagy's graphic character and his literary-illustrative conception left their mark on all his works. Sándor Nagy's monumental wall paintings were created in the heyday of the so-called Hungarian Art Nouveau, in the decade of the '10s. He fulfilled huge commissions.

The further development of the Gödöllő Colony was brought to an end by the war. Its inhabitants scattered, and in 1920 Aladár Kőrösfői-Kriesch died. From the war years, watercolours and pastels played an increasingly important role in Sándor Nagy's art. He was a founding member of the Hungarian Watercolour and Pastel Painters Association and the Hungarian Graphic Artists Association. In the second half of the 1920s, like the post-impressionist masters associated with the Nagybánya tradition, he became preoccupied with problems of light and became a leading master of post-art. His watercolours capture fresh experiences of nature and mystical moods.

The above Glass Window design (1927) was probably made for a Budapest spa and is an example of Art Nouveau symbolism. On either side, women of timeless beauty, like sirens, sit on the water's edge in costumes of modern and mythological times, leading our gaze to the Gorgon (perhaps Medusa?) above. The passionate interplay of lines is replaced by an emphasis on a decorative overall image.